Tender is the Flesh(38)

He’s only had a few hours of sleep after the long drive from the game reserve when he wakes with a start. A car horn is honking. Jasmine, who’s at his side, looks at him, her eyes open wide. She’s used to keeping still, to watching him, because she sleeps all day and at night he needs her not to move much. That’s why he started tying her to the bed, and she got used to it. He doesn’t want Jasmine wandering through the house when he can’t keep an eye on her. He doesn’t want her to get hurt or for something to happen to his child.

He jumps out of bed and moves the curtain aside. A man in a suit is standing next to a car with the door open and bending down periodically to honk the horn.

“It’s an inspector,” he thinks.

He opens the front door, in pyjamas, his face twisted with sleep.

“Se?or Marcos Tejo?”

“That’s me.”

“I’m from the Office of the Undersecretary for the Control of Domestic Heads. The last inspection was almost five months ago, is that right?”

“That’s correct. Show me where to sign so I can go back to sleep.”

The inspector looks at him with surprise at first, and then with authority, and raising his voice, says, “Excuse me? Where’s the female, Se?or Tejo?”

“Look, El Gordo Pineda called to tell me that you’d only need a signature. The last inspector didn’t have a problem.”

“You mean Se?or Pineda? He doesn’t work in the department any more.”

A shiver runs along his spine. He tries to think. If the inspector finds out that Jasmine is pregnant, they’ll send him to the Municipal Slaughterhouse. But worse still is they’ll take his child away.

He tries to buy himself some time to figure out what to do. “Why don’t you come in for some mate, I’m half-asleep,” he says. “Just give me a few minutes to wake up.”

“I appreciate the offer but I have to get going. Where’s the female?”

“Come on, just for a bit. You can tell me what happened to Pineda,” he says, sweating, trying not to show he’s nervous.

The inspector hesitates and then says, “All right, but I can’t stay long.”

They sit down in the kitchen. He lights the stove and puts the kettle on the burner. As he’s getting the mate ready, he rambles on about the weather, and about how bad the roads are in the area, and asks the inspector if he likes the work. When he hands the man the mate, he says, “Will you give me a few minutes to wash my face? I got back from a long drive yesterday and I’ve had almost no sleep. You woke me up with all your honking.”

“But before I honked I was clapping my hands for a while.”

“Really? I apologize. I’m a deep sleeper, I didn’t hear a thing.”

The inspector is uncomfortable. It’s clear he wants to leave, but Pineda’s name drew him into the house and that’s what’s keeping him there.

With the inspector in the kitchen, he goes to his room and sees that Jasmine is still in bed. He closes the door and as he walks to the bathroom to wash his face, thinks: What should I do? What should I say?

He returns to the kitchen and offers the inspector some biscuits. The man accepts them with distrust.

“Did they get rid of El Gordo Pineda?”

The inspector doesn’t answer right away. He tenses up. “How do you know him?” he asks.

“I used to work with him back when he were kids. We’re friends, we were inspectors at the same time. We did your job when hardly any of the regulations had been finalized, we were the ones who adapted them.”

The inspector seems to relax a little and looks at him with different eyes. With a degree of admiration. He helps himself to another biscuit and there’s a hint of what could be a smile on his face.

“I just started, I’ve been doing this for less than two months. They promoted Se?or Pineda. I never worked for him, but I’m told he was a great boss.”

He’s relieved, but hides it. “Yeah, El Gordo’s something else. Just give me a second,” he says, and goes to his room to get his phone. He dials El Gordo’s number and returns to the kitchen.

“Gordo, how have you been? Look, I’m here with one of your inspectors. He wants me to show him the female, but the thing is I haven’t slept and she’s out in the barn, and I’d have to open it up—it’ll be a whole ordeal. Didn’t I just have to sign and that was that?”

He hands the phone to the inspector.

“Yes, sir. Of course. We hadn’t been informed. Right, from now on. Consider it taken care of.”

The inspector places the mate off to the side, searches in his briefcase and pulls out a form and a pen. He smiles in a way that’s artificial, tense. It’s a smile that hides several questions and one threat: What are you doing with the female? Are you enjoying her? Are we talking illegal use of another’s property? Just you wait until El Gordo Pineda isn’t around any more. Just you wait, you with your special privileges, you’re going to pay.

He sees this clearly. The questions and the veiled threat. But he doesn’t care. He knows he can fake a certificate for domestic slaughter, the plant has everything he needs. That, and he can no longer depend on El Gordo Pineda, not after this visit. He wants the inspector to leave, he wants to go back to sleep, even though he knows it won’t be possible. He hands back the form and says, “Did you want more mate?”